The Spectator

Barometer | 12 December 2013

Whose year is it anyway? Some things which 2014 has been declared to be the year of: — Year of the Horse (China) — International Year of Family Farming (World Rural Forum) — Year of the Brain (European Brain Council) — Year of the Salamander (Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) — Year of Crystallography

Joy to the world | 12 December 2013

Pessimism sells. It shifts books and newspapers, sends ratings soaring. It fills lecture halls, wins research grants, makes political careers. We are fed this constant diet of doom, predicting anything from meteorological Armageddon to a tyranny of austerity, and so it is little wonder that we tend to miss the bigger story. A cold, dispassionate look

Spectator survey: What would you tell your 14-year-old self?

Joan Bakewell Broadcaster and journalist Those early teenage years are a time of doubt and discovery. Take time to be alone and speak honestly to yourself. Weigh up what you think others — family, friends, teachers — think of you. Then consider what you feel about the world and your place in it. Read the world’s great

Christmas past in Spectator letters

This is a selection of seasonal letters from The Spectator’s 185-year archive, now online at archive.spectator.co.uk. The emblem to the right is by our cartoon editor, Michael Heath. It was his first drawing for the magazine, and appeared in 1959.   Spare the turkey Sir: Of the thousands who within the next few days will

In pictures: Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013

Adopting a boxing pose in 1950. Speaking in the early 1960s. After being sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia trial, Mandela and seven other men leave the Palace of Justice in Pretoria 16 June 1964 with their fists raised in defiance through the barred windows of the prison car. Mandela and his wife Winnie

Chickens

‘We’re still looking into it, but we’re pretty sure it stands for “Kind, Friendly, Courteous” chicken farm.’